Deaf And The Church

1 Pages 328 Words

Attending Sunday Service – Proclaiming God’s Word to Those Who Cannot Hear

I had the opportunity to attend Mass this past Sunday (something I have not done in years) at the Valley Forge Baptist Temple in Pennsylvania.

As a “hearing” person, never exposed to this forum, I found it to be extremely interesting and equally distracting. I noticed that I was captivated by the movements of the interrupters (there were 4 present) and not paying attention to the words being spoken.
After the service, I spoke with a gentleman who explained to me that this congregation has many Deaf parishners who attend their services regularly. That is the reason there were 4 interrupters both signing the gospel and singing with the choir. I had asked why the Minister did not sign and he explained to me that Sunday Masses have been interpreted in sign-language for thirty years. However, interpreted Sunday Masses are infrequent and even non-existent in many areas, though they are much more frequent than Masses celebrated by an ASL-signing ministers (priest), which some view as the ideal.
In small localities with comparatively large pockets of ASL users, this may be practical. In general, however, the population of ASL users is small and scattered unlike some ethnic communities where virtually everyone shares a language other than English. ASL users live among hearing people (and others with hearing losses), who do not exclusively rely on ASL. Ninety percent have hearing parents, and ninety percent of their own children are hearing.
In the absence of celebrants and lectors who are able to sign for themselves, an interpreter facilitates communication. Assuming equal sign language proficiency, an interpreter (who is not also speaking) is actually more understandable to an ASL user than a person who is simultaneously signing and speaking. Simultaneously trying to sign and speak interferes with the natural rhythms of both communication modes. The...